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Simon & Schuster
July 2016
On Sale: July 12, 2016
Featuring: Leon; Jake
304 pages
ISBN: 1501117459
EAN: 9781501117459
Kindle: B0176M3SYE
Hardcover / e-Book
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Literature and Fiction Literary
For fans of THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS, a sparkling, big-hearted, page-turning debut set in the 1970s about a young black boyβs quest to reunite with his beloved white half-brother after they are separated in foster care. Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, βIβm your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy.β Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can. But Leon isnβt in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another, and try as he might he canβt protect his little family from everything. When their mother falls victim to her inner demons, strangers suddenly take Jake away; after all, a white baby is easy to adopt, while a half-black nine-year-old faces a less certain fate. Vowing to get Jake back by any means necessary, Leonβs own journeyβon his brand-new BMX bikeβwill carry him through the lives of a doting but ailing foster mother, Maureen; Maureenβs cranky and hilarious sister, Sylvia; a social worker Leon knows only as βThe Zebraβ; and a colorful community of local gardeners and West Indian political activists. Told through the perspective of nine-year-old Leon, too innocent to entirely understand what has happened to him and baby Jake, but determined to do what he can to make things right, he stubbornly, endearingly struggles his way through a system much larger than he can tackle on his own. MY NAME IS LEON is a vivid, gorgeous, and uplifting story about the power of love, the unbreakable bond between brothers, and the truth about what, in the end, ultimately makes a family.
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